Chicken "Sophisticate"

What I have created here is one of the most fabulous chicken dishes and is really simple to make.  What I was going for with this dish was pure foodie F-L-A-V-O-R and that's what I got and then some. Cilantro, fresh garlic and ricotta cheese are the stars in this show and helped meld all the other ingredients together into a perfect marriage of "Mmmmmmm" with every bite.  

~Special Kitchen items/equipment needed~

• String for tying the chicken into rolls, about 6" pieces.
• Food processor

What you need for the marinade:

~2 Cups white wine (not cooking wine)
~5 Thin sliced chicken breasts that you can find packaged at your market.  You will have to use your judgement here as to how many you would like to make when you see just how thin your chicken breasts are.  If they are on the thicker side use 5, if thinner, use more.  And also depends on how many you are cooking for, but this recipe is based on 5 thin sliced breasts that are on the thicker side.
~5 Cloves of garlic crushed
~1 Tbsp Jalepeno jelly whisked into the wine for even distribution. (usually can find this in the Mexican section of your market)
~1/4 Cup salt whisked into the wine (for the wine brine)
~1 Tbsp extra light olive oil (meaning the one without the olive flavor)

Let's get to work:

1) Provided that you didn't consume all the wine, hee hee, place all the ingredients above in a bowl or ziplock and cover and marinate in fridge for 6 hours or over night. If you have one of those food saver canisters that suck all the air out like I have it will be done in 2 hours.  I love my food saver!!!

What you need for the sauce:

~Cup of ricotta cheese
~1 1/2 to 2 Cups Cilantro (I just love this herb!!)
~6 Pitted Dates or Figs (Figs were not available at my market, so I used Dates)
~1 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
~1 Tbsp Rice vinegar (plain rice vinegar, not flavored)
~Juice from 1 lemon
~1/2 Tsp Salt
~About 20 Smokehouse roasted almonds
~1 Jalepeno pepper
~5 Garlic cloves
~1 Tsp extra light olive oil

Simple, simple here, load all the ingredients into your food processor and blend until smooth.  Taste your sauce and see if it needs anything.  For example, if you are tasting too much cilantro,  add a little more ricotta to tone it down a bit, etc.  Just use your judgement and adjust to your tastes. Can make ahead and leave in fridge up to 1 day.

Now that we have our sauce and the chicken has done it's time in the fridge, we are ready to assemble these delicious chicken rolls!!

~Preheat oven to 375~

1) On your work surface, take your chicken and lay it flat lengthwise on top of your string
2) Place a dollop of the sauce in the middle (it will be a touch runny, no worries, it's not actually going to act as a stuffing)
3) Bring both sides of the chicken overlapping one side to the next and tie nice and tight and place in your baking dish sprayed with a non stick spray.  Repeat the process until all chicken has been rolled up.
4) Spoon over some extra sauce on top of each piece and place in the oven for about 30 minutes (thin chicken cooks fast) Save the rest of the sauce for serving!!)
5) Place the rolls on plates and remove the string.  heat up the leftover sauce in the micro and spoon over chicken rolls.  Then add some crushed smokehouse almonds to the top, a little bit of pepper flakes and fresh cilantro  and serve and of course don't forget to enjoy.  Good wine pairing would be a nice crisp Sauvignon Blanc!  I made some grilled roasted mini sweet peppers to serve as the vegetable with this which was a great match.